Exodus 9:16

16 But this is why I have let you live: to show you my power, and to make my name resound through all the earth.

Exodus 9:16 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 9:16

And in very deed, for this cause have I raised thee up
Or but truly or verily F3; instead of smiting thee with the pestilence, and cutting thee off out of the land of the living, "I have raised thee up"; made thee to stand F4, to continue in being; I have preserved thine from perishing by the former plagues, and have reserved thee for greater judgments and sorer punishments. It may take in all that God did to him; the constitution and appointment of him to all this in his eternal mind; his bringing him into being, and raising him up to kingly dignity; preserving him from perishing by the pestilence, boils and blains, and keeping him for future evils, and all upon this account for the following reasons: for to shew in thee my power;
in working miracles, inflicting judgments one after another, and especially in destroying him and his host in the Red sea: and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth;
as it has been more by that last action than by all the rest of the plagues; though, in all, his sovereignty, wisdom, power, patience, longsuffering, and justice, are most visibly displayed and glorified.


FOOTNOTES:

F3 (Mlwaw) "veruntamen", Junius & Tremellius, Psicator, Drusius, Fagius; so Ainsworth.
F4 (Kytdmeh) "stare fecite", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus.

Exodus 9:16 In-Context

14 For this time I will send all my plagues upon you yourself, and upon your officials, and upon your people, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.
15 For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.
16 But this is why I have let you live: to show you my power, and to make my name resound through all the earth.
17 You are still exalting yourself against my people, and will not let them go.
18 Tomorrow at this time I will cause the heaviest hail to fall that has ever fallen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.